Friday, February 25, 2011

The Snowy Day

Another snow day we'll have to make up, but I'm okay with that. Today has been a GREAT day so far!

This winter, we've had a fair amount of snow, but Evan hasn't wanted to participate in any snowy outdoor activities. We had attempted outdoor adventures a couple of times, but he only lasted a few minutes each time, before he would let me know that he was done.

Ironically, his favorite book right now is The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats. He, my daughter, and I all have it memorized. It made me kind of sad that he loved the book so much, but how could he fully connect to it, when he hadn't experienced those basic winter activities?

So today, when we were fortunate to have this snow day from school, I decided early on that we were going to live that book today.

Because he slept in this morning, when he woke up, it was already light out. I went into his room to greet him, and after our "Good Morning!" I carried him to the window and started reciting the first page of the story when the little boy is waking up and looking out his window and seeing the snow, only I inserted Evan's name. Big smile on his face.

Midway through the morning, I excitedly explained to him how we were going to go outside, including the different events from the story. He respectfully disagreed, well, okay, he whined a bit, but I kept the enthusiasm up.

And here's the rest of our story...

Evan and his mom headed out the door into freshly fallen snow in the backyard.

Crunch, crunch, crunch!

His boots sank into the snow.

In the distance, Evan spotted something...

It was a stick, poking out through the snow. He understood the endless possibilities of what he could do with this stick.

He first decided to drag the stick in the snow to make a track.

He then ran to the tree with the stick raised high in the air.

Smack, smack, smack!

To his delight, the bright, white snow fell softly onto his coat.

With his mother's help, Evan made the best snowman he had ever seen! He helped scoop up the snow and pack it on to the small ball of snow to make it bigger and bigger and bigger.

Scoop, scoop, scoop!

Pack, pack, pack!

After pushing the arms into place, they stood back and looked with amazement at their new friend, Mr. Snowman.

Evan thought about going inside, but soon discovered that there was more fun to be had.

He turned around to see the silliness of his mother while she lay in the snow waving her arms and legs. To his delighted surprise, when she stood up, there was a snow angel on the ground!

Before heading inside to the warmth of the house, Evan looked all around the yard at the beauty of the snow.

He knew that one day, he would happily venture out into the snow again.